Blind Fishing Dry Flies

Most fly fishermen will agree it is hard to beat the thrill of casting a dry fly to rising trout. However, I've always considered myself as not falling in with the crowd. Personally I find the thrill of exploring waters with a dry fly much more enjoyable and the uncertainty of the presence or absence of a fish to be a much greater thrill. Casting dry flies blindly may be looked at as a waste of time to many, but it is a great exploring technique and is very effective in certain situations.

First let's start with the technique itself. Blind casting dry flies implies one is not casting to a specific rising fish. In fact normally you won't be sure if a fish is present or not. Instead you are casting to a specific spot on the water trying to entice a fish to rise to your dry fly, but again if there is a fish present. This is a different type of fishing with two keys to success, cover lots of water and make your first cast your best cast. As you are fishing you don't want to waste time blind casting to the same spot over and over again. The whole point is to present your fly to an unsuspecting fish. Once you have made a few casts to a spot with no luck it is best to move on, either the fish has noticed you and won't strike, it doesn't like your offering or there simply may be no fish there.

Understanding where trout like to hold will also improve your success when blind fishing dries. Riffles and runs are often the most productive areas of streams to blind fish. These areas have faster water that will give the trout less time to determine whether or not your fly is food and that can only work to your advantage. Look to areas in front of and behind boulders or anything that creates a current break. Places where multiple currents come together will also normally hold fish. However, this is the great part about blind fishing dry flies, cover as much of the water as you can. While there are spots that you will learn should hold fish is can be extremely exciting to discover some odd places that can hold fish.

When it comes to your setup I would recommend using 5x tippet at the lightest because strikes are often very aggressive. As for flies, attractor patterns normally work the best. There is a reason why they are called attractor patterns; they were designed with blind fishing in mind. Some of the more reliable attractor patterns are stimulators, humpies, wolf's, coachman's and irresistables, but patterns like caddis flies and grasshoppers can also produce great results.

Blind fishing dry flies is an exciting style of fishing. It works great on small streams and is an excellent way to explore new waters. Some of the largest fish I catch every year are landed using this method and it hard to describe the excitement of hooking a fish that you didn't even know was there. Next time you see a bunch of anglers crowded in a pool casting to rising fish move to the fast water and blind cast some dries.